Nexus Prime May Come with Google Chrome as Stock Web Browser

A report by tech site ConceivablyTechmentions that Google Chrome is just about ready for Android. The first version of Chrome for Android is expected to come out any time this month, according to the site.

Based on the Chromium opensource project, Google Chrome for Android will reportedly bring many of the features of Google Chrome’s desktop version into the Android version. Google is reportedly unifying Google Chrome and making it run across multiple platforms (including, but not limited to, Android, Chrome OS, Windows, Linux, and Mac OS).

Advertisement

Google is not just unifying Chrome. Google is also said to be almost done with another major unification effort–that of Android’s different versions. With the upcoming Android 2.4/4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), Google will have produced a “cohesive” and unified version of Android that will run on devices of various screen sizes: from smartphones, to tablets, to TVs.

It is possible that Google may launch Google Chrome for Android along with Android 2.4/4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Way back in 2008, Google launched both Android and Chrome within the same month–so, history is likely to repeat itself this year.

And, since Google is also reportedly launching a new Nexus handset (the Nexus Prime, Nexus 3, Nexus Plus, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, or whatever it will be called) together with ICS, it is also likely that Google Chrome for Android will become the standard browser app on the Nexus Prime.

At least these three–the Nexus Prime, Android 2.4/4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and Google Chrome for Android–may be placed under the spotlight at the Samsung Mobile Unpacked event slated for the CTIA Enterprise and Applications (CTIA 2011) conference on October 11. Samsung’s invitations for the event has explicitly mentioned that it will be a “Google Episode.”

With desktop-like features in the Google Chrome app for Android, users could enjoy such features as instant search on the Omnibox (URL address bar), multiple tabs, Chrome extensions and apps, and others. This would also mean that Nexus Prime users will be the first to enjoy these features through Google Chrome for Android, as well as the brand-new features packed into ICS.

ConceivablyTech also floats the possibility of running Web-based computer-intensive games on an Android smartphone or Android tablet using Google Chrome for Android. One indication of that is Google’s efforts to bake video game interfaces into the Google Chrome desktop version–and those could trickle down to the Android version.

Another indication is the Mouse Lock Specification Draft, a proposal to enable locking the mouse cursor in Chrome in certain situations. “This idea could imitate touch screen input on a non touch screen display, which could bridge the gap between traditional computing devices such as a notebook and desktop computer and mobile computing devices such as tablets,” according to ConceivablyTech.

It is not a far-fetched idea, too, for Google to marry Android and Chrome (and call it Androme or Chroid, or whatever). About three years ago, Google launched both Android and Chrome. The former was supposed to bring mobile devices under one platform, while the latter was supposed to reach beyond Web frontiers. What do you think of that kind of unification?